I just picked an Eagle's Talon 1/48 scale kit of the Ki46 Dinah. While I have been somewhat familiar with the Dinah, and always thought that she was a very attractive bird, until now, I hadn't given much thought about building it, primarily because there are so many othe3r types to choose from.

But, the price seemed reasonable(less than 20 dollars), I succumbed to curiosity.

To start with, I haven't built a vacuform kit in a long time, the last time being a 1/48 IL2.

Since acquiring it, I had learned that Tamiya has a kit of the Dinah.

And, like any project "in the works", I've also begun collecting information on this, the first parts of which are a copy of the particular issue of Maru Mechanic, and FAOW. These being in Japanese, there is still a lot of pictorial information on them, especially the Maru(the FAOW has been ordered and paid for, and is in transit in the mail, so I have yet to be able to go through it).

So I am also asking, are there other sources, comparable or even more extensive than these?

Anyway, the question I wanted start off asking. What is the quality of this kit when compared to the Tamiya offering? In contrast to the last vacuform kit I built(back in the mid-80's), this one includes resin parts, some of which I'm planning on using, while others I might replace(Engines and Things seems to have a nice pair of HA112 engines for the Dinah, although the engines that Vector sells look pretty good, as well, although they are more expensive), and I might order another canopy from Squadron, looking at the kit itself, I'm pretty happy with it, and the information search looks to be an interesting one(I also found plenty of ideas from a Google Images search).

The Tamiya kit is a Ki-46-III.

If the vacu-form kit you have is a II, it is not really the same subject matter and it would have no counterpart in injection moulding: Thus it could be worth building, but it might still benefit from modified Tamiya wings and engines, as vacu-form wings tend to be universally terrible, with blunt trailing edges and absolutely awful balloon-rounded or even squarish plank-like airfoils throughout.

Even the best limited run plastic injection mouldings tend to have hugely thick wingtips and blunt leading edges that often can't compare to "real" injection moulding, the otherwise very good Classic Airframes Avron Anson being a good example.

If the vacu-form kit you have is a Ki-46-III, I would say keep a few detail parts from it and buy the Tamiya kit: The Ki-46 is the best 1/48th WWII aircraft kit Tamiya has ever done (in my opinion), and the chance that any vacu-form kit is even remotely near to it in terms of end result quality and accuracy is less than nil.

I have looked closely at the Tamiya Ki-46 kit and I can vouch completely for its outline accuracy, right down to and including the two prop variants. It is one of the best injection moulded kits ever done, bar none.

I would still recommend using a Squadron vacu-form canopy on the recon (unarmed) version because, on this type of low-angle compound curve canopy, the thickness of the clear plastic really shows, with optical distortions that are not the maker's fault.

There is, again, little chance the vacu-form canopy in your vacu-form kit will be in remotely the same league to the Squadron vacu-form canopy in terms of crispness or clarity, and the Squadron canopy can be ordered for around $3 to $5 and is made for the Tamiya kit specifically.

Sometimes old vacu-form kits are exceptionally good and really worth the hassle, this old FW-58 kit being one of those rare exceptions:

http://www.swannysmodels.com/Fw58B.html

But generally one should be very wary of them, even at a low price, unless it is a very obscure subject. Even then the low price usually has a reason...

Gaston